Kno: Reimagining the school textbook

Ask Osman Rashid, co-founder and CEO of digital textbook publisher Kno, about the state of his industry these days and he’s nothing but bullish:

“Two years ago, schools, parents, teachers and professors would say, ‘What is a digital textbook? Tell me about it,’ ” he says. “Today that question is gone. What they’re saying is, ‘Where do I get it? How do I deploy it? How can my entire school to use it?’ It’s gone from ‘if’ to ‘how,’ which is a big transition in the industry.”

Kno, headquartered in Santa Clara has been a biog part of that transition. It’s partnered with traditional textbook publishers to create digital textbooks that students can use on their smartphones, tablets and computers. It’s also developing additional tools to help students learn, such as digital flashcards and an online journal that saves their notes and the text they’ve highlighted.

Going forward, it’s continuing to rethink the textbook, seeing not a static set of facts, but a library of content to be broken down and experienced in a variety of ways.